Bangor, Maine

“ The River Penobscot is situated entirely within the State of Maine; having its rise far in the interior of the State, it is not subject to the tides above the city of Bangor, near its mouth. Between the city of Bangor and Old Town, a distance of eight miles, the Penobscot passes over a fall, is crossed by four dams erected for manufacturing purposes, and for the above space is not, at this time, and never has been, navigable; but there is a railroad from Bangor to the steamboat landing at Old Town. ”

“ The water power in this vicinity is said to be superior to that of any town in the United States. Its present great source of wealth is the lumber business, which has been carried on to a very great extent. Thirty years ago, Bangor was a wilderness; according to the last census, its population was eight thousand six hundred and twenty-seven.
Bath, a town of Maine, on the west side of the Kennebec, twelve miles from the sea, is at the head of the winter navigation; is pleasantly situated, and has great advantages for commerce. Ship-building is carried on here to a large extent ”

“ It is served by the Maine Central and the Bangor & Aroostook railways, and by an electric line connecting with Bangor. The city proper is on an island (Marsh, or Old Town Island) , but considerable territory on the W. bank of the river is included within the municipal limits. The manufacture of lumber is the principal industry of the city. ”

“ At an early day he became a citizen of Bangor, Maine, and wisely invested in pine timber lands on the Penobscot waters, when lands were cheap. Their true value was not appreciated by many. The business interests of the county had not been developed and lumber dealing was not profitable. The increase in value on his investments made him a wealthy man. He was a banker, merchant and lumberman. His investments always yielded a rich return. His associates and townsmen often elected him to posts of honor and trust. In 1842-57-65-67 and 69 he was in the Maine state legislature. ”

“ The Indian name, Apmoojenegamook, means lake that is crossed, because the usual course lies across, and not along it. This is the largest of the Allegash lakes, and was the first St. John's water that we floated on. It is shaped in the main like Chesuncook. There are no mountains or high hills very near it. At Bangor we had been told of a township many miles farther northwest; it was indicated to us as containing the highest land thereabouts, where, by climbing a particular tree in the forest, we could get a general idea of the country. ”

“ While the batteau was coming over to take us off, I picked up some fragments of arrowheads on the shore, and one broken stone chisel, which were greater novelties to the Indians than to me. After this, on Old Fort Hill, at the bend of the Penobscot, three miles above Bangor, looking for the site of an Indian town which some think stood thereabouts, I found more arrowheads, and two little dark and crumbling fragments of Indian earthenware, in the ashes of their fires. The Indians on the island appeared to live quite happily and to be well treated by the inhabitants of Oldtown. ”

“ At the head of the public school system is the university of Maine, near the village of Orono in Orono township (pop. in 1900, 3257) , Penobscot county. This institution was founded in 1865 as the state college of agriculture and the mechanic arts; in 1897 the present name was adopted. It embraces a college of arts and sciences, a college of agriculture, a college of technology (including a department of forestry) , a college of law (at Bangor) , and a college of pharmacy. The most conspicuous of its twenty-five buildings is the library, built with funds contributed by Andrew Carnegie. ”

“ The inhabitants of Oldtown, Stillwater, and Bangor cannot suffer for want of kindling stuff, surely. Some get their living exclusively by picking up the driftwood and selling it by the cord in the winter. In one place I saw where an Irishman, who keeps a team and a man for the purpose, had covered the shore for a long distance with regular piles, and I was told that he had sold twelve hundred dollars’ worth in a year. ”

“ This camp, exactly twenty-nine miles from Mattawamkeag Point by the way we had come, and about one hundred from Bangor by the river, was the last human habitation of any kind in this direction. Beyond, there was no trail, and the river and lakes, by batteaux and canoes, was considered the only practicable route. We were about thirty miles by the river from the summit of Ktaadn, which was in sight, though not more than twenty, perhaps, in a straight line. ”

“ A Geographical View of the District of Maine, with Particular Reference to its Internal Resources, including the History of Acadia, Penobscot River and Bay; with Statistical Tables showing the Comparative Progress of Maine with each State in the Union, a List of the Towns, their Incorporation, Census, Polls, Valuation, Counties, and Distances from Boston. By Joseph Whipple. Bangor: Printed by Peter Edes. 1816. 8vo. pp. 102.
[429] An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia, in two Volumes. Illustrated by a Map of the Province and Several Engravings. ”

“ There would be but one or two falls, with short carrying-places, and we should go down the stream very fast, even a hundred miles a day, if the wind allowed; and he indicated where we should carry over into Eel River to save a bend below Woodstock in New Brunswick, and so into the Schoodic Lake, and thence to the Mattawamkeag. It would be about three hundred and sixty miles to Bangor this way, though only about one hundred and sixty by the other ”

“ My companion said that in one journey out of Bangor he and his son had shot sixty partridges from his buggy. The mountain-ash was now very handsome, as also the wayfarer’s-tree or hobble-bush, with its ripe purple berries mixed with red. The Canada thistle, an introduced plant, was the prevailing weed all the way to the lake, the roadside in many places, and fields not long cleared, being densely filled with it as with a crop, to the exclusion of everything else. There were also whole fields full of ferns, now rusty and withering, which in older countries are commonly confined to wet ground. ”

“ Bandon post office was established September 12, 1877, with John Lewis first of a long line of postmasters.
BANGOR, Coos County. Bangor was a townsite laid out on the west side of Pony Slough, now within the city of North Bend. "Major" L. D. Kinney, who came to Coos Bay about May, 1902, from Maine, promoted the townsite and also expected to build a belt line railroad at Coos Bay and a railroad from Coos Bay to the Willamette Valley. ”

“ The ferryman had told us that all the best Indians were gone except Polis, who was one of the aristocracy. He to be sure would be the best man we could have, but if he went at all would want a great price; so we did not expect to get him. Polis asked at first two dollars a day, but agreed to go for a dollar and a half, and fifty cents a week for his canoe. He would come to Bangor with his canoe by the seven o'clock train that evening,—we might depend on him. We thought ourselves lucky to secure the services of this man, who was known to be particularly steady and trustworthy. ”

“ When we look to Bangor, so favorably located at the head of navigation, the grand center of all these great interests, it would seem not irrational to predict for it a glorious career in growth, wealth, and importance, nor improbable that the same may be fully realized. She is surrounded by resources of wealth altogether beyond any other town or city in the state, of which neither her citizens, with all their foresight, nor capitalists, seem to be fully aware. ”

“ He goes weak at the knees, totters, and feels utterly undone. The town lies as it were in the bottom of a funnel, and, tucked away from actual contact with the vivifying breezes of the Menai Strait, has air neither from one side nor the other. It is, by consequence, a town of the sickliest. Let these things, however, be said rather in sorrow than contempt, for of contempt Bangor has already had sufficient at the hands of generations of travellers. ”

“ It rained all this day and till the middle of the next forenoon, concealing the landscape almost entirely; but we had hardly got out of the streets of Bangor before I began to be exhilarated by the sight of the wild fir and spruce tops, and those of other primitive evergreens, peering through the mist in the horizon. It was like the sight and odor of cake to a schoolboy. He who rides and keeps the beaten track studies the fences chiefly. ”

“ THE MICE
AT the place where the Irish Sea is narrowest is the town of Bangor. There the green hills of Saint Patrick's island smile over at the purple cliffs of Scotland across the lane of water where the ships pass to and fro, just as neighbors nod across a narrow street above the heads of the passers-by. And here at Bangor Saint Comgall built a monastery, thirteen hundred long years ago. ”

“ I had my Franklin car, so Pa asked Mr. Booker to show us about the city. Bangor is a nice city, but it don’t have any barrooms 24 in sight like most cities do. Pa says it’s a matter of legislation whether they are in sight or not. Pa says a glass of their whiskey down there will make a man think he owns the State. ”

“ The neat little town of Beaumaris, (the capital of Anglesea,) the Castle, which is a beautiful ruin, and the adjoining Park, are well worth the stranger’s attention. Being anxious to proceed further that night, and having transacted some business in the town, and taken tea at the King’s Arms, I was ready at seven o’clock to join a party, if I could meet with one, in hiring a boat for Bangor, three miles across the water, or to the p. 6Chain-bridge, two miles further, or to Carnarvon, seven miles beyond it. The boatmen spoke of a party going to Bangor, but not further, that night. ”

“ Presently we pass under the hideous excrescence of the Penrhyn slate quarries, grey terraces of rubbish contrasting cruelly with the glowing gorse of the opposite slopes; and then through the equally hideous town of slate, Bethesda, the miners’ town, whose slate walls, slate steps, and slate porches are enough, as Dr. Johnson, would say, “to make a man hang himself.” Let us hurry on into the Cochwillan Woods.
Very soon after passing the modern towers of Penrhyn Castle we reach the town of Bangor, “which for the beauty of its situation, was called Ban-cor, the high or conspicuous choir.” ”

“ Manufactures in the town are scanty, but Llanberis and Llanllyfni export hence slates, “sets” and copper ore. A steam ferry unites Carnarvon and Tan y foel, Anglesey, while a summer service of steamers runs to Menai Bridge, Bardsey, &c. The borough forms part of a district returning a member to parliament since 1536. To this district the Reform Act added Bangor. The county quarter sessions and assizes are held in the town, which has a separate commission of the peace, but no separate court of quarter sessions. Three weekly Welsh (besides English) newspapers are published here. ”

“ Even though you couldn’t understand it I think you’d like to hear the way they go on; they seem to express so much. I sometimes think that at Bangor they don’t express enough—except that it seems as if over there they’ve less to express. It seems as if at Bangor there were things that folks never tried to say; but I seem to have learned here from studying French that you’ve no idea what you can say before you try. At Bangor they kind of give it up beforehand; they don’t make any effort. (I don’t say this in the least for William Platt in particular.) ”

“ Hampden has put everything out of our minds. We could have crossed the river lower down, but thought we might as well see Bangor when we were so near, and then take the main road straight down to the island, a distance of about sixty miles. We took a last look at Hampden, and after a brisk drive of six miles reached Bangor, where we got our mails, filled our lunch basket, drove about the city a little, and then were off full of anticipation, for we had been told repeatedly that the drive from Bangor to Bar Harbor was “magnificent.” ”

“ Till the vale of Nant Francon of slates is bereft,
Nor a Lady, nor Countess, nor Duchess be left.
The see of Bangor extends over all Anglesea, and parts of Caernarvonshire, Denbigh, and Montgomery. It was most probably founded, or at all events a monastic establishment was formed here, in the year 525, by St. Deiniol, who was at first abbot, and afterwards bishop. The name Bangor may signify “the White Choir,” or the “High Choir,” and is found applied to an ecclesiastic institution in Flintshire, as well as to a famous religious house in the County of Down, in the North of Ireland. ”

“ In short, from the speculative spirit of the inhabitants, and the increasing demand for Slates at Port Penrhyn, which, as well as the Quay at Hirael, is generally crowded not only with small craft, but with Ships of considerable burthen, Bangor seems advancing rapidly into consequence; it is also of late years become a place of fashionable resort, particularly in the Summer season. ”

“ I met them at every corner, and heard their happy 277 voices in every dwelling, and a more perfectly beautiful race of creatures, I never before saw in any city.
The distance from Bangor to the ocean is eighty miles. For twenty miles the river averages three quarters of a mile in width, when it gradually widens into an expansive bay or gulf. The water is deep, always covered with vessels, and abounds with salmon, which are only taken with the net. ”

“ On the 1st of March, 1838, we entered Bangor, which at that time had a population of ten thousand. This was my birthday, I being thirty-one years of age. I visited some of the leading men of Bangor. They granted me the use of the city hall, where I preached to good audiences for two successive evenings. This was the first time a Latter-day Saint elder had preached in that town. Many were anxious to learn more about our principles, but our visits through all the towns from Thomaston to Bangor were necessarily brief, owing to our appointments upon the islands. ”